These tiny tarts mix cranberries and orange peel into a delightful pecan tassie recipe. Butter and cream cheese make the crust rich in this state fair blue-ribbon recipe from Sheila Bethia of West Allis, Wisconsin.

Chocolate and sweet potato batters are swirled together to make this moist, tender spice cake from Patricia Polley of Columbus, Ohio. Wrap and store the cooled cake overnight for easier slicing. (It’s a great alternative to coffee cake for brunches.)

Sliced apples, roasted cashews and dried fruit combine with mango chutney, spinach leaves and curry for an exotic, fresh-tasting salad. The recipe comes from the New Albany (Ohio) Cooking with Friends community cookbook.

Midwest cooking school guru Liz Clark added cranberries to this recipe from a friend in Chicago who develops recipes for restaurants. The dense, chocolatey layer cake is featured in Liz's cookbook, The Cranberry Companion.

Cranberry-orange relish, sliced turkey and fresh watercress or spinach leaves make a colorful appetizer-size sandwich. The recipe includes instructions for making focaccia, but purchased bread works fine, too.

Dried cranberries and dairy products star in Cranberry-Sour Cream Pound Cake, created by the Midwest Living® Test Kitchen to celebrate the state of Wisconsin, the nation's leading producer of cranberries.

The all-American summertime dessert -- strawberry shortcake -- dons a different personality in this recipe. The shortcake is a spiced sour cream version dotted with currants; you'll use pears or apples and cranberries instead of strawberries for the topping.

An easy sauce made with fresh cranberries, sugar and cranberry juice blends with chocolate and cream cheese for the bottom of this creamy layered cheesecake. Serve the remaining sauce as a topping on Cranberry-Chocolate Cheesecake.

More delicious cranberry cheesecakes: Crimson Cranberry Cheesecake, which was a favorite at the old Marshall Field's State Street store in Chicago; and Scarlet Swirl Cheesecake, with a cranberry-orange juice swirl inside the cheesecake and a cranberry sauce on top.